Protector for ice in transit



0'. STRUFE PROTECTOR FOR ICE IN TRANSIT April 29, 1930.

Filed July 5, 1929 m\ a A w f J 13 l v 4 /0 5 2 v W IL, M/ 0 n a rn w a ,m m Q w 2 ,1 10

O WW 2 m W 6 3 0 Patented Apr. 29, 1930 PATE oFFIcE OTTO STRUIEE, OF DWIGHT, ILLINOIS PROTECTOR FOR ICE IN TRANSIT Application filed July 5,

These improvements relate to means for protecting ice being shipped in freight cars and the like. Its chief advantage is in con nect-ionwith what is known as manufactured or artificial ice.

Ice manufactured for commercial purposes is made in open-top cans of various dinien-sions, and the rectangular cakes weigh usually from one" hundred pounds up to four 1 hundred pounds. Such manufactured ice is peculiarly fragile, and so fragile indeed that for the most part manufacturers refuse to ship such ice by rail.

When ice in such cake form is packed for shipment in a box car the cakes are set on edge and positioned side by side in laterallyextending rows from one side of the car to the other. After one such lateral series has been set down another series just like it is set on top of the first. In this way the floor space is covered with a double thickness of the cakes, that amount making a carload. The cakes areapplied at the ends of the car first and the structure is built up toward the middle where finally the cakes are wedged and packed together so as to keep the whole mass as much as possible from moving relative to the car.

Owing to the joltin-g of the car in transit, especially the-shocks due to sudden starting and stopping and the impacts incident to shifting the car in the yards, etc. the car arrives at its destination with the artificial or manufactured ice badly cracked and split apart, and usually to a large extent broken up in substantially small masses. I have received at least one shipment of artificial ice coming not more than fifty miles in which I believe there was not a singlecake intact, and the cal-load as a whole was in such broken up condition that the commercial disposition of it' resu'lted in actual loss". It may bementioned that natural ice when packed as described may safely be shipped even long distances without material damage under the ordinary conditions of freight service. Natural ice is peculiarly strong. A cake of it suspended will-often ring like a bell when struck with a hammer. It breaks 1929. Serial No. 376,020.

and chips entirely differently from the manufactured ice.

The very notable differences between the two kinds may, no doubt, be attributed to the different methods of freezing. of natural ice the freezing extends gradually downward from the surface of the water, while in the manufactured ice it extends inward from the sides and upward from the bottom. In the middle portions of the artificia-l cake there are usually accumulations of foreign matter and apparently well-defined cleavage areas or surfaces. In any event the manufactured cake as a whole is structurally weak. i l

The present invention is directed to means for rendering commercially feasible and satisfactory the shipping of manufactured ice in the form of cakes and slabs as ordinar ily produced, to the end that districts outlying from a given source of manufacture may be supplied with ice at times when the natural crop has failed or becomes exhausted, and whereby the commercial field for artificial or manufactured ice may be enlarged.

I am not aware that any device for this purpose has heretofore been suggested. It has been common to use lumber at various places in the car, to pack the cakes more tightly, but without success so far as the breakage in question is concerned. It is not considered feasible to pack the ice in sawdust as it must be delivered in a'clean condition, and cleaning it would be objectionably expensive. Furthermore, it would be expensive and no doubt prohibitive to pack the ice in sawdust at the loading point. I

In the drawings Figure '1 is afragmentary sectional View transversely of a. car body showing two transverse tiers or rows of ice arranged in the usual way and with the present invention normally applied and seenin face view;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional longitudinal view of the car body showing several of the transverse rows of the ice blocks, with thepresent invention applied between adjacent rows; and

is an enlarged detail of one of the supports or hook elements with a fragment of In the case the shield, guard, or protector element attached thereto. I

The shield or protector proper, in its preferred form, comprises a network adapted to overlie an exposed face of a tier of the cakes. It is illustrated as comprising a plurality of transversely-extending buffers or shock absorbing elements 10, 11, 12 and 13, shown in the form of ropes which may be suitably an inch or more in thickness and which may be of good quality or of such coarse rope material as various kinds of grass, other fibre, straw, etc. I prefer to use coarse hemp rope for the purpose, for the sake of durability and cheapness. Preferably two such elements as 10 and 11 extend across the exposed ends of the upper transverse tier of blocks marked a to i inclusive while two other such elements as 12 and 18 extend across the'exposed ends of the lower tier, namely blocks marked j to 1" inclusive. These bufier or shock-absorbing elements 10 to 13 inclusive are held suspended by smaller ropes 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. These;vertically-extending ropes as 14 are severally passed between strands of the transverse ropes as 10 and a knot 20 in each vertical rope above the transverse ropes respectively and a similar knot 21 below the'transverse ropes hold the latter upon the vertical ropes respectively. The network thus formed extends across the ends of the blocks of the two transverse tiers as shown by Fig- 1.

The vertical ropes numbered 14 to 18 inclusive aresecured by tying them to the respective supporting members 25, each shown as' a piece of iron having the upright part 26 and the normally horizontal part 27, the latter having a point 28 turned normally downward and adapted to catch upon the upper surface of a cake of ice. The part 26 has a hole 26 at its lower end to accommodate the or tiers.

The transverse ropes 10, 11, 12 and 13 are fairly stiff so that although the end supports 25 may be placed about midway of a given end cake of ice as a and 2' (Fig. 1), the free ends as 10*, 11 12 and 13 of the transverse ropes project laterally and extend the desired protection substantially from side to side of the tier arrangement.

surface of the upper tier as shown.

There is thus provided between the trans verse tiers cushioning material adapted to ab sorb to a large extent the shocks and jars incident to freight travel and importantly, the ice cakes are thus maintained apart at what has heretofore been their abutting ends.

hen they are end to end and a sudden shock occurs they at .once go into fragments.

It would be feasible to have cushioning material, for example such as 10, 11, 12 and 13, extend vertically, as by suspending such material from a plurality of supports or supporting members. By extending them transversely however I believe a more practical and serviceable device is produced than in some other arrangement.

I have illustrated rope sections and the network form of device as being probably the most practical and servand removed and otherwisehandled. Thesej desiderata are present in the form illustrated.

There the device is made of strongand substantial material and COHStILlClLlOIl, as is the one illustrated, it may be used many times,

provided the'consignee ships it'back to the manufacturer of the ice. One advantage of the flexible character of the device as a whole is in its ease and convenience of handling, not 7 only when applying and removing it, but also inshipping it back, for which purpose burlap bags may be used, or'several of the devices may simply be tied up with rope into a bundle and tagged. It occupies but little space when in use, and is of such character that when normally applied only a slight movement of the ice body as a whole may take place. In other words it lends itself to a tight-packing of the ice with little loss of car space while" spacing the rows of cakes and cushioning them. Anydevice that would allow the cakes to move materially and gain momentum thereby would be objectionable, and tight packing of the ice is highly desirable. V r I contemplate as being included in the present invention all such changes, departures and modificationsfrom what is thus illustrated and described as fall within the scope of the appended claims. 7

I claim:

1. An ice protector of the character "'described comprising a network of cushioning material adapted to lie upon the exposed ver-v tical surface of a row of cakes of ice, with supporting means for holding said network suspended to lie upon such surface in operative position.

2. The combination of claim 1 hereof in which shock absorbing elements of said network are of rope. i

3. The combination of claim 1 hereof in which said supporting means comprise a plurality of devices each of which is adapted to rest upon the upper surface of the row of ice cakes.

l. The combination of claim 1 hereof in which said supporting means are adapted to rest upon the upper surfaces of ice cakes in the row and said network consists of substantially vertically-hanging cord-like members and the cushioning material comprises ropelike members extending transversely and carried by said vertically extending members.

5. A shock absorbing device for ice in transit comprising a supporting member adapted to rest upon the upper surface of an ice cake, and shock absorbing means pendent from said supporting member.

6. A packing device of the character described comprising a flexible network includ? ing flexible vertical members and flexible vertical transverse members, some of said members being of cushioning material, with means for supporting said network suspended.

7. The combination of cakes of ice packed for transit with the cakes arranged in transverse rows, there being a plurality of such rows extending longitudinally, adjacent ones of the rows being close together, with shock absorbing devices between some of the adjacent rows, each of said shock absorbing devices comprising a flexible network extending between adjacent rows, with means for supporting the network in operative position.

8. A shock-absorbing device for ice in transit comprising a plurality of hook-like members adapted to rest upon the upper surface of a tier of ice cakes adjacent to an edge thereof, and soft and flexible cushioning material suspended from said members.

9. A shock-absorbing device for ice in transit comprising a plurality of shock absorbing elements of rope, and a plurality of hook-like members adapted to rest upon the upper surface of a row of ice cakes adjacent to an edge thereof and supporting said shock absorbing elements.

OTTO STRUFE. 

